In case it hasn’t been made abundantly clear how little wyte scholars respect Black scholars, I present to you this past week’s conversation w/ 2 wyte women who have created a project to get rid of racist pedagogy in Old English studies. 1/

Problem: they’ve erased BIPOC scholars, dismissing concerns & appropriating, columbusing ideas & perpetuating white supremacist actions that keep the field stagnant. #medievaltwitter #shakerace #BIGGER16 #raceb4race

Tldnr: this is abt wyte saviors, BIPOC erasure, columbusing 2/

& perpetual mistreatment of marginalized communities, particularly by wyte women who dont keep up on issues but capitalize on “race” scholarship for their CVs. This is abt scholars who dont put into practice theories they read & think they know. They don't treat us w/ dignity. 3/

I am exhausted w/ this. Let me remind any new readers that I’m one of the only Black scholars in the field of Early English studies and one of the few BIPOC scholars. You can read about that here: https://medium.com/@mrambaranolm/anglo-saxon-studies-academia-and-white-supremacy-17c87b360bf3 4/

Sending out Bat signal to scholars who know how TIRED BLACK SCHOLARS ARE OF THIS SHIT! @tressiemcphd @Dr_MaiMusie @bkadams @OlivetteOtele @DrDadabhoy @BlackPhDE @SORAAADworkshop @BrigField @medrenliza @AntheaButler @SamiraNadkarni @dorothyk98 @Prof_Flowers @tnflorvil et al! 5/

To clarify, I agree that our field needs to change who & what it teaches (& how), but these discussions are not new. We have been having these discussions for years, more intensely in the last 12 months. You have witnessed this. Nutshell: 2 wyte women have a project that they 6/

shared with 2 listservs recently. One listserv is the racist org that changed its name last year. I don’t know if & how it can dismantle racist & abusive structures w/o the help of marginalized ppl (the majority left last year). @erik_kaars explains here: https://twitter.com/Tweetistorian/status/1299366598504050688?s=20

You can’t deal with racism by propping up model minorities & white-passing ppl. This is how our field has always operated.

The reason why a lot of BIPOC scholars are on social media is precisely b/c we have a voice here & can make connections that we wouldn’t otherwise. 8/

Wyte scholars in academia often dismiss social media, but this is tied to accessibility. BIPOC are often excluded from conversations & dismissing social media ignores the fact that many of the important issues are being had here. Check out #blackintheivory for an example. 9/

Back to the issue: When I saw this project website (I realized off the bat it had serious issues, lack of transparency, erased voices while propping up problematic ppl, claiming to start conversations that have already been started, etc.) so I sent these simple questions. 10/

I was cc’d in on a board meeting email that asked us to signal boost this project. So before signal boosting, I had these very basic questions. My points were clear. We can look for window dressing fixes but institutional problems will still remain if we don’t tackle them. 11/

I have been saying that for a long time. This individual does not even KNOW what the problems are, nor the conversations being had, but she’s going to fix & dismantle. Let me remind you, my field is almost entirely wyte & among BIPOC scholars I am 1 of the only Black women. 12/

I did not even KNOW abt this project & was the only 1 to point out major flaws w/ it once I saw it. I wonder why that is? So aftr several rounds of back & forth emails, I couldn’t get answers to my initial questions. There's a blatant refusal to acknowledge my legit concerns. 13/

My q's abt perpetuating racist practices, being white saviors w/o knowing the issues are valid. Wyte scholars who have never had anything invested in race scholarship should not be capitalizing on race issues for their CV. This is particularly important when scholars cannot 14/

treat their BIPOC colleagues w/ respect, dignity or even acknowledge their existence. This is a form of gatekeeping to keep the field wyte, to keep its discussions on race guided by wyte ppl & it’s blatant careerism. No one is saying these ppl dont deserve to be in the field, 15/

but they should stay in their lane & learn to listen to BIPOC scholars. Anti-racist praxis seems to be on their own terms. These ppl are Robin DiAngelos of medieval studies. I'm fucking disgusted & tired. 16/

While ppl like myself drive the difficult conversations & are at the forefront which bear the biggest burden for attacks, harm & pushback, white ppl continue to stay away from these conversations & issues. Being at the forefront of movements means I & others like me have less 17/

time to publish. This allows wyte ppl to benefit from our activism & create publications & projects on our backs which they can add to their CVs. Wyte medievalists cloister themselves away to the rest of the world & when they appear they burst on the scene ready to solve 18/

problems that they have no idea are present.
Our work & activism is diminished & erased, while they come out w/ “groundbreaking” or “leading” research on race. This is columbusing. If you want to “reinvent” or “disinvent” Old English studies or any other studies, you have to 19/

know what the core issues are. This project is littered w/ bothsideism, propping up white scholars, gatekeeping, erasure of BIPOC, elitism, etc. As my email says it’s moving towards wyteness again b/c these ppl have no idea what’s going on & what it takes to fix these issues. 20/

How do you “fix” white supremacy if you don’t even know what that is and you operate within that system and begin your project following the same narratives as before?

21/

Wyte ppl with institutional privilege who are cloistered away & come out of their dwellings when BIPOC are being ground down they do so to “fix” problems and "save the field." You cannot continue to get away with this. 22/ #blackintheivory #medievaltwitter

You can stop reading here if you’ve got the gist of things but here’s the receipts below. The first correspondence is posted above. Email convo w/ names redacted of the two wyte women, but this project states on its website that it wants to be transparent. It is not, 23/

& this hiding behind emails is a way to keep me & other BIPOC (and other marginalized scholars) silent so that the project can go on w/o interference. This is disrespectful & careless. These ppl don’t see me as an equal. I am so sick of this disrespect & erasure. 24/

While the biblio on early English studies @erik_kaars & I wrote/posted on Medium was not referenced, collaborators had info on there w/o credit. If these collaborators have ‘read widely’ how did they not know abt the biblio created? Biblio stats since posting aftr our #DWH talk:

We later discovered that one collaborator had asked journal editors for lists of forthcoming publications. This is fine, but she sent us (Postmedieval editors) an email saying she was working on a “piece”. My co-editor explicitly asked “DO NOT CIRCULATE.” 26/

Please don’t tell me there’s different interpretations to “please do not circulate.” The collaborator was NOT transparent. Here is the email from my co-editors (posted w permission to use their names). 27/

Notice how this person chooses not to address my concerns & pivots to an email abt a smaller matter. She’s trying to change the topic. I wonder why? Someone is uncomfortable. 28/

As you can see from the responses there was NO accountability. No transparency. No acknowledgement that this was white saviorish & columbusing. These ppl continue to champion scholars that will perpetuate the problems in the field. 29/

They have not been interested in racISM & they have not put into practice that they care about scholars of color unless they find shields who will support them. Here's @erik_kaars response to our biblio & problems w/ the project: 30/

Notice too, that “reading widely” cannot have happened with half of these publications being “forthcoming.” How can you know abt what’s going on if all you read is peer-reviewed articles? This again is about elitism, accessibility & gatekeeping. 31/

A lot of our public outreach/writings are more scrutinized but b/c they don’t have prestigious journal names attached means they don’t count for anything. This is a discussion we’ve been having in fields that these collaborators are not aware of. 32/

No answers to my questions in 5 days and the final response was “I hear you.” I hear you is the response of people who are not listening and who want to silence you. 33/

This project is plowing forward. I gave the collaborators the opportunity to answer some Q's & be accountable for what they were doing/saying & instead they offered me a 250 word blurb on how to dismantle white supremacist structures in academia. 34/

Let me know if that’s possible cause I certainly don’t. After asking them to be accountable they have refused to answer me.

Long story short, we cannot break through. Wyte scholars will ignore your existence until you have something that they can benefit from & then they 35/

will use you, your body, your time, energy & let you exhaust yourself & then swoop in. They'll erase you & your work & you. 36/

Racism is all around us in academia. It doesn’t just manifest in hate. It is perpetuated by those “good liberals.” It is in privilege. It is in access. It is in ignorance. 37/ #blackintheivory #medievaltwitter #academictwitter #blacklivesmatter

One of the most important questions that was ignored was “what are you doing in this moment.” In this moment means watching our Black brothers & sisters die for the world to witness at the hands of cops & other wyte supremacists. 38/

Watching story after story of Black & other non-Black POC scholars be abused, humiliated & dehumanized. We are exhausted. This is on top of the pandemic. There are uprisings & protests & we still have academic responsibilities & families, some of which are dying. 39/

This is constant & scholars like the two collaborators have no idea what’s going on but will somehow save the field. I was infantilized in that conversation – treated like a child whose issued could be ignored if I was given a cookie. My issues were ignored, the collaborator 40/

gas lit me & instead of coming clean, tried to get me to do more labor (& take on a ridiculously complex assignment but gave minimal space). I asked what they were doing in this moment & why they were holding webinars during the strike next week. Q's were not responded to. 41/

The field of Old English studies, medieval studies is unsalvageable. For anyone listening, this is your moment to pivot, change course, get out. P. S. I guarantee you that these scholars “not on social media” will be here shortly. 42/

Please support the strike organized by @AntheaButler with the help of @TheTattooedProf https://twitter.com/AntheaButler/status/1298792595750096896?s=20

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